War in Ukraine paralyzes part of the global merchant fleet

The German Shipowners Association (VDR) estimates that around 100 ships from the world’s merchant fleet are stranded, unable to continue their journey, in ports on the Black Sea and the adjacent Sea of ​​Azov, a week after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among them, there would be several German ships, as stated this Wednesday (03/02) the president of VDR, Gaby Bornheim.

“We demand that all ships and their crews can leave the conflict zone unharmed,” Bornheim said. “Russia must respect freedom of navigation. Non-participating merchant ships must not be attacked.”

Bornheim called on the warring parties to “ensure that – in addition to the Ukrainian population – the men and women on board, regardless of nationality, do not become victims of this war”.

Russian and Ukrainian sailors

According to information from the VDR, Ukrainian and Russian sailors also form an important part of the crews of German merchant fleet ships. “An estimated total of around 5,000 sailors from both countries are working on board. Often also on board the same ship,” the association said, adding that so far this situation has not caused major incidents. “It’s a professional collaboration,” says Bornheim.

According to the VDR, crews from both nations represent 14.5% of all 1.89 million sailors worldwide. Nearly 200,000 are Russians and 76,000 are Ukrainians.

As per information from the VDR, there are still no regulations for dealing with Russian-flagged ships. The spokesperson for the VDR said that this should be decided by the member countries of the European Union (EU). The UK has closed its ports to Russian ships.

Collapse in maritime trade with Russia

The German group specializing in port logistics HHLA has informed its customers that it will not accept any containers coming or going to Russia, due to EU sanctions. This also applies to cargo transported by train, barge or truck. The company said it follows the example of terminal operators in other European ports.

The reason is that containers coming to or destined for Russia are no longer being dispatched in Rotterdam and Antwerp. So ships have to look for another port to get rid of their containers.

With the measure, HHLA wants to prevent the storage space of containers, which is already scarce due to transport disruptions, from being further reduced.

Only medicines and food

Major shipping companies such as Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are no longer accepting cargo contracts to and from Russia. “To the extent that this is possible under existing sanctions, we are transporting already contracted cargo to Russia,” said a spokesman for the Hamburg shipping company. This mainly applies to food.

The world’s largest container shipping company, Maersk, is temporarily halting all deliveries to Russia. Maersk announced on Tuesday that Russian ports would no longer be served “until further notice”. Exceptions apply to deliveries of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. Maersk had already stopped travel to Ukraine for security reasons.